Imagine if your personnel used a simple calendar to schedule patient appointments. Would you want to rely on a basic tool to schedule surgeries? Could you trust leaving other complex procedures that often requires effective coordination between multiple resources and employees to a flawed process?
Even when managing planned appointments, you will need to have some time reserved for unexpected situations. At any given moment, one appointment could last longer than its originally scheduled time.
One of the doctors on your hospital staff could get summoned to an emergency operation. In addition, labor reports will reflect low utilization rates. Do you continue with the simple calendar, or will you look for a hospital scheduling software program?
IT Capabilities to Remedy Scheduling Issues
Since technology has become such a tremendous part of everyday life, using it to remedy potential scheduling conflicts should occur automatically.
It begins by making sure the electronic calendar system you choose is intelligent enough to not only book appointments, but to also schedule staffing needs to cover different activities.
For instance, scheduling an operation involves making sure the preoperative area is prepared to receive the patient. This will require having skilled staff available along with any equipment that the surgeon might require.
Real-life flexibility is also essential to having an effective scheduling system. Finding one that molds into the inner workings of a hospital is crucial to keeping things running smoothly.
Running a hospital is a major undertaking. Therefore, you need all the tools available to keep up with thousands of employees all having a part in daily operations. That translates to thousands of schedules that will not survive a manual, paper process.
It is necessary to have scheduling software that is designed for the needs of your hospital and employees.
What Makes Scheduling Software a Necessity?
Truthfully, using software to schedule employee shifts is not an option for the healthcare industry. Knowing that this necessity should be handled with the utmost care is par for the course.
Patients expect and deserve full attention to their conditions. Giving them what they expect requires an adequate number of medical professionals on the team. If the team needs 200 employees, but only 150 show up, you are not serving your patients.
Mistakes are not acceptable due to patients being overlooked, or employees calling off leaves shifts open. Before these become an unwanted reality, learn the full benefits of using a scheduling system that keeps your hospital delivering quality patient care.
Here are four reasons why adopting a hospital scheduling software system is the best decision you can make.
1. Easy One-Click Scheduling
If employees constantly call their supervisors and managers about upcoming schedules, it is time to search for a more efficient way of disseminating this information. What is the response when shifts are not complete?
Instead of relying on manual input or paper trails, software that allows you to point and click can also give employees access to what they are asking.
With a streamlined process, the software automatically notifies employees of their schedules, including last minute schedule changes. If someone calls out sick, employees looking for overtime can receive an alert of available hours.
Hospitals run round the clock and need tools that support this nonstop culture.
2. Remove Conflicts in Schedules
Time-off requests are not foreign to the medical environment, so it is best to have the right tools to handle them. Employee availability occurs for many different reasons, yet, services for patients must continue uninterrupted.
Scheduling software in a hospital keeps requests organized in a centralized online location. Once employees submit their requests, managers receive an immediate notification. Eliminate unexpected no-shows with automatic reminders to employees about their next shift.
When the team comes to work on time, more patients are seen. This can translate into lower wait times and higher patient satisfaction.
3. Keep Employee Contact Information Easily Accessible
Reaching thousands of employees becomes a laborious task if it has to be done one call at a time. This becomes a tremendous undertaking when a catastrophe or treacherous weather conditions affects the ability of your hospital to deliver care.
Ensuing injuries can inundate the ER, which requires having more staff. With scheduling software, you can simultaneously contact everyone on the list through a mass email or text message.
Contact information is organized so whether managers need to contact 50 or five employees, they can do so quickly and easily.
4. Save Money on Labor Costs
Buying and integrating a new software system into your hospital might seem like an expensive endeavor. Upfront costs might blind you to the benefits of making this type of investment.
However, think of the importance labor cost calculations have on creating schedules. Whether daily or weekly, department heads need budgets to be as accurate as possible.
A system that simplifies building work shifts gives managers more time to devote to urgent tasks. Changes from week to week are unnecessary because managers can create a schedule once and use it as a template for future schedules.
Ultimately, you want a hospital scheduling software system that becomes a silent, easy-to-use partner that keeps your facility available to serving the public.
